With the explosion of the popularity of snowboarding and other activities such as skateboarding and in-line skating have come serious injuries such as wrist sprains and fractures. Such injuries are typically the result of participant using his/her arm(s) to cushion a fall during such activities, which generally results in a high-energy impact of the involved hand, wrist, and forearm with an immovable mass such as the ground or a sidewalk. Such high-energy impacts quite often result in muscle sprains, bone fractures, and hyperextensions.
Wrist and other types of braces are known in the art for protecting the hand, wrist, and/or forearm during such high-energy impacts. Examples of such braces are shown in the representative U.S. and international patents listed below, which are incorporated herein by reference:    U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,667    U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,692    U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,092    U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,773    U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,936    U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,752    WO 98/17132    JP 102 48863A
However, the braces disclosed in these patents suffer from limitations and deficiencies. For example, some are cumbersome to use, and many fail to provide sufficient protection against injuries such as “Gamekeeper's Thumb” (hyperextension) and finger or wrist sprains and fractures which can include, for example, hyperextension of the wrist. Novice snowboarders, skateboarders, skaters and participants in other such activities frequently injure themselves by falling backwards or sideways and attempting to break such falls with their hands extended, e.g., hyperextending their wrists.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a forelimb brace assembly that is simple to use and provides enhanced protection against injuries to the hand, wrist, and/or forearm such as the Gamekeeper's Thumb, finger injuries, and wrist injuries during snowboarding, skateboarding, skating, and other such activities.